


Come Back For Me

by MelsaMoo



Series: Come Back For Me [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Moira O'Deorain, Blackwatch Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Comfort, F/M, Gabriel is dying kind of, Grammarly is my beta, Heart-to-Heart, Not Beta Read, Overwatch - Freeform, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, Right before the events of Retribution, Young Angela "Mercy" Ziegler, Young Jesse McCree, Young McMercy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:55:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22201450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelsaMoo/pseuds/MelsaMoo
Summary: Right before the events of Retribution.Mercy x McCree
Relationships: Jesse McCree/Angela "Mercy" Ziegler
Series: Come Back For Me [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1603378
Kudos: 14





	Come Back For Me

She was not used to accepting defeat. Not in the slightest. In fact, she had made it a personal mission up until this point to never accept defeat. Even in the face of death, she would defy death and resurrect those whom it planned to take from her. She honed her craft, made herself useful on the battlefield and even pioneered a new field of medical technology. 

Despite all of that, she was still forced to accept defeat. She had devoted all of her free time (including that for sleep) to the search for a solution. And yet, she couldn't find one. Never had she ever experience such a crushing loss. It fell just below losing both of her parents, and that was saying something.

It was in the crushing defeat that her med bay gained itself a population of 2, a change that did not register in her current state. 

"Uh, doc?" Came a very, very, specific voice that usually warmed her heart.

Today it only startled her and maybe let a bit of her dignity float away. With her head still planted quite firmly on the top of her desk, " _What_." It was not a question.

"Well, how's that for a hello to yer favourite cowboy?" Came his flirty response.

She only groaned, "I'm in the middle of something if you don't mind leaving, Jesse." Her voice absorbed almost entirely by the wood of her desktop. 

"Uh... Ange the med bay's empty." Came his confused voice. She could hear a hint of a smile and wanted desperately to slap it off him. She'd done it before. 

"You're the only cowboy I know," she whined in tardy response. With a groan, she picked herself up off her now-warmed desk and turned to face him in her desk chair. Her face wore it's desperation quite openly as she looked to him, "What do you need, Jesse?"

He actually looked around the med bay for a second, a very strange action, almost as if he were looking for someone; or worried someone was listening. Angela crossed her arms in impatience. 

"I know you've got patient confidentiality and all that jazz, but I'm here about Reyes." He barely made eye contact with her; she supposed he knew her response.

She grunted and winced a little. Her face wore a little pout and she shook her head 'no' towards him.

"Come on, Ange. He's bein' strange - he's in pain all the time now! Isn't there nothing you can do?"He walked towards her a little bit as she stood up to meet him. She planted her hands firmly on his chest to stop him.

She shook her head, almost looking like she was in pain, "There's _nothing_ I can do, Cowboy."

McCree's eyes widened; taken aback. He'd never heard Angela say anything like that before. In fact, he wasn't sure she'd ever said that sentence before in her life. 

He paused, frozen in place, "Nothing?"

She grimaced and nodded. The resignation was painted on her face. 

"...are you okay, Angel?" came the timidest response she'd ever heard McCree give.

Angela Ziegler was not one to lose composure. She was strong in the face of death. She was strong on the battlefield; often selfless. She was strong at her parents' funeral. She was strong- but not now. Not in front of McCree. Not in front of her best friend and only confidante. And certainly not now, facing death in it's walking form. She shook her head and broke down. Throwing her arms around his neck and bawling her heart out to his neck. 

"Woah, Woah, Angie, I've got you. It's okay Darl'," Came his confident and patented comforting technique she had grown to succumb to time and time again. "I've got you, Angie."

"I can't save him!" Came the only strangled response she could give. His arms gave her a stronger squeeze, holding her in place. Even still, she could feel him waiver a little.

Everyone could see Gabriel's deteriorating condition. It wasn't hidden at all. Every day he seemed worse and worse. There would be windows where he seemed like normal Gabriel again, and everyone would breathe a sigh of relief only to hold it in again a few days later. What no one except Gabriel, Angela and Moira knew, was that he was constantly being revived. And each time, his condition seemed to get worse. Angela had begun to question the limits of her technology and how far the human body could seem to be stretched. So was Gabriel. He was beginning to question her methods. Moreso now that he was doing solo missions with Moira. It frustrated her to no end. Her dislike of Moira's techniques was not unknown and most of the base was aware of the danger of putting the two in the same room. 

She was hiccuping, a truly undignifying experience, as she spoke, "He- he keeps dying- Jesse. Every week he- dies and I have to- to resurrect him and it's- it's not working- as well as it- it did and he- he doesn't care- for what I do- do anymore. He said- I'm not doing all that I- I can and he thinks Moira can do more! I'm so scared- Jesse, I can't save him. He's no long- longer- my patient!" She cried heavier into him, holding herself tightly against him. Trying to hold onto anything that could make her feel stable; worthy of being a doctor. 

"Ange..." His voice came in her ear, and it was filled with sadness. 

She pushed herself off of him, "God, what kind of doctor am I? I-" She hiccuped and paused to collect herself, "I can't believe I can't save the commander of Blackwatch. I've spent every waking and sleeping hour I have trying to find a way to save him. I can't. I just can't. And he hates me for it." She paced around the med bay. 

"You can't just leave him in Moira's hands! That woman gives me the creeps." He shivers, and Angela makes a sound in agreeance, "She'll kill him, Angie." He says quieter.

"Yeah, well at least he'll have someone he thinks is doing the best they can; Someone who might deserve the blame." _of his death_ she adds in her head. It doesn't need to be said. They both know it. "I am no longer the Doctor of Gabriel Reyes, and therefore I have lost all privileges to his files and am not informed of his procedures and treatments," She adds as she picks up and reads the formal letter Moira had written to her. "I have to accept defeat. I lost, McCree. I played God and lost."

"So, what now Angie?" 

"Grieve a dead man walking and move on, McCree." 

"Ange." 

" _What?!_ " She stopped pacing.

"I'm so sorry."

That was all it took for the tears to come welling right back up in her eyes. She was grieving a man who was still alive and there was no other way to exist right now. So she grieved. She dropped to her knees as she found herself staring at nothing and wept. Wept as hard as she could possibly manage. Maybe more for herself than the man she was losing. Weeping for the failure she had created. 

McCree knelt down in front of her and gathered her into his chest once more. It seemed like her safe place; it really was. 

"I hope you find peace, my sweet Angel," came McCree's sweet and honeyed voice in her ear. 

It sounded like a goodbye.

She was snapped out of her state and looked him in the eyes, tears still rolling down her cheeks.

"Where are you going." It wasn't a question. It was a threat. He couldn't leave her now. She needed him. 

"Boss' got a job in Italy. Off the books." He paused as fear began to blossom on her face, "Angel, I don't think this one's for the good guys."

"Don't go, then." She replied with a kind of defiance that only came from mortal fear.

"I don't exactly have an excuse, punkin'. Your health report came at the wrong time, and I can't exactly say: 'I can't disobey the law'; I've got a literal bounty on my head. 'What's one more mission off the books.'." He paused, his hand coming up to catch a rolling tear on her cheek, "Ange... I don't think Reyes has his head on right. I... I'm not sure we're going to live through this one..."

"No, no, no, no, no, Jesse! Don't think that way. Please. You have to come back. What if I make it doctor's orders?" He chuckled darkly in response. "You've got a family here, Jesse. Anna, and Fareeha, and Reinhardt, and Torbjorn, and..." she paused. 

His eyes wandered her face. Stopping on all of her features. She hated it. She knew he was trying to take a picture of her in his mind forever. She hated it, she wanted him to come back; to come back to her. 

"Jesse. You have to come back to me." She said with finality.

The blush rose on his cheeks, "What, would you miss me Darl'?" he tried to laugh it off, but it didn't really work. 

"I can't do this without you. I can't be me without you. I can't wander these halls and be in this med bay without hearing your stupid voice, and hear your stupid spurs clicking in the hall, and seeing your stupid smile whenever you look my way; Jesse I just can't without you," the tears blurred her vision, but she could see the apologetic smile on his face.

"How long have you felt that way, Angie?" She could hear the cockiness through the sadness and despite it making her want to stop and shut up, she gave him a gentle punch to the chest. 

"You have to come back to me, Jesse. I need you." She stopped as a smile pushed its way through her features, "Sometimes I wish we could just get out. No more war. No more Talon. No more Overwatch. Just spend an eternity on the roof watching the sunset and falling asleep under the stars... Those are my favourite times, Jesse. Just being with you. No responsibilities," she paused as his nose inched towards hers, "No death... just you and me getting to be stupid, stupid kids."

His lips gently brushed against hers. It wasn't like she didn't expect it, no she had been waiting a long time for this. Jesse McCree was a gentleman before anything else and would never hurt a woman's integrity or honour. Or kiss first. But these were desperate times. 

She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, upon her knees to kiss him back. It wasn't what she wanted at all. She hated this, she wanted to kiss him as a joyous celebration, not this. He tasted like whiskey and cigars, and she didn't mind enough to remind him to stop smoking; And something else. He tasted so entirely bittersweet it made her want to cry. But she didn't. She loved him. Her stupid cowboy. So she made sure this kiss, although their first would most likely be their last, was as passionate as she could possibly make it. She pushed all the love she had for him into that kiss and cherished every moment. 

He broke away all too sudden for her liking and she tried so desperately to hold onto him for a little longer, but there was someone in the doorway. 

"Time to go, McCree." Came Genji's voice. More solemn than usual, maybe he felt what was in the air at the base. Something desperate and evil; like everything was coming to an end. 

He didn't even look to Genji but nodded in response. 

"Angie, I lo-" she slapped her hand over his mouth. Shaking her head fighting back tears. 

"Don't. Don't make this a goodbye. Tell me when you come back to me. _When_." she emphasized. He deflated in resignation. 

"I really do, Angela. I do." He stood up and gave her a final squeeze; a final goodbye. He walked towards the door when she grabbed his wrist. 

"Jesse. I... I-"

"I know, Angela. Tell me when I come back to you." And they walked out the doorway.

When she made it back to her dorm that night she found a sticky note on her headboard along with McCree's serape and hat, "I'll come back to you, my Angel."

**He didn't.**

**Author's Note:**

> It's totally my headcanon that after McCree's appearance in the Retirbtuion story that he made himself scarce and didn't come back to Overwatch. Doesn't appear until the recall x many years later (also overwatch what is your timeline?!)


End file.
